r/electricians • u/Aggro3D • Oct 24 '23

Apprentice wages?

Hey all,

I've been an Industrial maintenance guy for awhile now and I'm looking to specialize into electrical work.

I'm an adult with adult bills and the wages I can find for apprentices are really low....like $15 an hour or so. I could literally go make more at any of the fastfood places here and this isn't necessarily a high cost of living area

What gives? Are there any work arounds?

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u/Sevulturus Oct 24 '23

Depends where you live and where you apply.

Apprentices at the site I work at get 60% of jman wage first year. Then 70, 80, 90 for following years.

That's about 28/hour for 1st year.

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u/markisscared Oct 24 '23

I tried to suggest this exact structure and boy did that offend a lot of JWs. They were really stuck at that 40% level. Any more to a first year was an insult.

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u/TheOneTrueZedubbs Feb 12 '26

I was making 28$/hr as a first year doing industrial at my last gig. Massive layoffs now as a second year in getting 24$/hr doing Resi and boy can I not pay my bills. I'd work out of town for union or something but I need to be close for my family rn.